Gallery: Comebacks and flops by 1990s TV stars

', '11.27.2012

Ben Savage and Danielle Fishel have signed on to reprise their roles as Cory and Topanga in Girl Meets World, which is being produced by Disney Channel. The role of Riley has not yet been cast. Riley has an older brother, Elliot, and a witty friend named Maya. It is unclear whether beloved Mr. Feeney or any other stars from Boy Meets World will appear in the sequel series.

'
/ '

SUCCESS and FAIL: The cast of Friends. The quintessential 1990s sitcom has turned out a hit-and-miss crew of actors since Ross and Rachel hooked up for good (is that how it ended? Does anyone remember anymore?). Jennifer Aniston became tabloid fodder and a moderately successful movie star. Courteney Cox found success on the wacky sitcom Cougar Town, Lisa Kudrow has taken some interesting if low-profile roles, Matthew Perry keeps trying for a new TV hit, David Schwimmer has found a niche as a director. Then there’s Matt LeBlanc, who was supposed to be the big success story after his was gifted a Friends spinoff called Joey. Unfortunately, it sucked.Handout
/ The Windsor Star

SUCCESS: David Duchovny was a pop-culture phenom thanks to the wonderfully creepy sci-fi series The X-Files in the 1990s, but his career hit the skids after a couple of big-screen duds and a bizarre stint in sex rehab. We thought that was the end of him (anyone know where his co-star Gillian Anderson is these days?), until he was cast as a womanizing Hollywood writer in the cable-series Californication, and the smart, funny, edgy series gave his career a needed boost.Archive
/ PNG

SUCCESS: Tim Allen. Home Improvement was one of the handful of family comedies that defined the golden era of the sitcom in the 1990s, and Tim Allen was its biggest star. While he found success in a few movies following the series, most notably the Santa Claus trilogy, he struggled to replicate his sitcom’s success (making stinkers like Galaxy Quest sure didn’t help). A new sitcom Last Man Standing launched in 2011, and while it hasn’t been a huge hit, it’s been renewed for a second season, and it has given Allen some regular work.RANDY HOLMES
/ ABC

SUCCESS: Kirstie Alley. The former star of Cheers had turned into a bit of a tabloid joke by the 1990s because of he struggles with her weight, but after embracing her girth on the short-lived sitcom Fat Actress, she reclaimed control of her image. That set her up for a couple of feel-good runs on Dancing with the Stars recently.Getty Images
/ Getty Images

FAIL: Roseanne Barr. She was a huge sitcom star during the format’s glory days in the 1990s with the series Roseanne, but when the show ended her run, she faded away. When her attempted TV comeback in 2011 was announced, it made perfect sense: America seemed ready to re-embrace her working-class sensibility as the economy struggled to recover. Roseanne’s Nuts, however, lasted less than a year on Lifetime network, and a second attempt at a TV comeback fizzled when no network picked it up.'
/ www.roseanneforpresident2012.us/

SUCCESS: 90210. The generation-defining teen drama of the 1990s, Beverly Hills 90210, was reimagined in 2008 by teen-loving U.S. network The CW. Borrowing a page from the successful rebirth of Canadian ‘80s teen drama Degrassi, the new 90210 brought back some of the original stars as older, wiser (for the most part), adults. While the new version hasn’t caught the zeitgeist like the original, it’s become a big enough hit to reach a fifth season, which is saying something these days. Original spinoff Melrose Place has also been reborn.Handout
/ The CW

SUCCESS (sort-of): Mayim Bialik. On the sitcom Blossom, Bialik played an awkward but loveable teen who wore big hats. But her quirky charm didn’t translate into much after the sitcom ended its run. Recently, she’s become an advocate for “attachment parenting,” which raised her profile but risks pushing her into eccentric-parenting territory alongside nonsensical anti-vaccine agitator Jenny McCarthy. A new role alongside the equally quirky nerds on sitcom Big-Bang Theory, however, has given her a boost. And when your divorce announcement makes the tabloids, like hers did recently, you know you’re at least on the pop radar.Submitted photo
/ CTV